[Poetic] Getting To Know CCP Manifest: An Interview
Getting To Know CCP Manifest: An Interview
I finished up my college education as a history major and English minor at Duke University in North Carolina (USA), having spent considerable time pouring over old timey journals and private letters and hand painted maps with white linen gloves in the historical library and soaking up the marrow of words of famous authors. Much time was spent taking my personal point of view and remolding it to suit very specific audiences for the sake of argument in countless essays both historical and literary.
Post university I was hard at work on a newest and bestest ever ?great American novel.? Perhaps you?ve heard of it?! Well, probably not since I never finished. While I had a very solid concept and a compelling suite of characters and I will still complete it eventually, I was quite immature as a writer and even more so as a time-manager. All of my favorite prose came through randomly experienced literary epiphanies, so I wasn?t structuring my daily life as well as I should nor laboring diligently to perfect my craft.
Once I realized I needed to douse my elbow in grease and regiment my daily schedule, I ended up soul-searching for other ?things that I loved?. To me that was gaming. I?d had countless years of fun gaming with my friends growing up and lots of the experiences I had while table top roleplaying, reading sourcebooks and playing through videogames were fueling my creative urges for the novel.
Through some clever internet investigation and old-fashioned networking I realized that White Wolf was within driving distance of my house ? a glorious day I will never forget. I applied for an unpaid internship and got it almost immediately. From there I worked my way up the ladder through my own grit and determination amidst a company that fostered self-improvement. My path wound a bit here and there but eventually ended in the right place.
Follow your dreams space kids. It?s amazing what you can do!
When did you first start at CCP? What is your history with the company (your various roles and titles)?
I started out as the noobiest of noobs of the RPG industry ? an unpaid marketing intern. From there I came to desire some sort of monetary compensation, so I applied for a job at a sister company of White Wolf (DriveThruRPG.com / RPGNow.com now known as OneBookShelf) doing publisher relations. It was a pretty sweet gig and it had the double bonus of sharing an office space with White Wolf. I still think fondly on those days, even though they exist amidst a kinda tragic 1970s split office/warehouse with carpeted cubicle walls filled with painted miniatures, dice and used furniture.
Shortly after the great vampire/spaceviking merger of 2006, I knew I needed to return to Elysium/Jita so I ended up taking the first available position I could apply for ? office manager.
I shepherded the Atlanta office and its motley crew through a 200%+ growth period as their spiritual office-goods and office-move leader and then a job in PR opened up for EVE as EVE continued to grow. At the time I was only beginning to realize that EVE was essentially the digital version of my favorite tabletop games wrapped up in a space theme ? a player-centric, player-driven narrative set in a dark and dystopian world.
I?d always dreamed of being a ?Game Designer?. OH TO CREATE WORLDS!!!! Then I realized what exactly those poor bastards have to deal with. Hint: a lot of spreadsheets and internal emails from amateur game-designers-in-marketing-like-me.
Then I thought I wanted to be a content creator. OH TO CREATE WORLDS!!! I even moonlit as one during White Wolf playtest sessions (Hunter: the Vigil was and is my favorite) and co-wrote a chapter on the Hindu pantheon in the Scion: Companion book). I eventually took enough time for some deep introspection. Through that journey-of-self I came to rest at my natural and proper position in PR. I?d already been doing some local ?rah rah? for the Atlanta office, and I?d helped out on numerous marketing projects, so my desire to convince people our games are the best forms of entertainment ever was eventually sated.
From the initial PR position I moved up to where I am and also took on the mantle of social media as I sort of intuitively ?understood? it, being an EVE player and spending lots of time reading blogs like this one, listening to podcasts and paying attention to the language and spirit of social media both in the EVE community and outside the boundaries of its jumpgates.
What is your current job at CCP? (What projects are you currently involved with? What have been some of your past projects with CCP? Your job may not be project focused.)
I?m Senior PR Specialist for EVE and mostly in charge of social media for all our products (although I give people the keys, especially the community team, pretty often). To that end I am highly involved in any sort of messaging, crisis management and press interaction. I also do some basic marketing functions when needed, being one of main marketing guys who specializes in EVE knowledge I get consulted a lot on copy and creative.
One of my main focuses of late has been devblogs, which are initiated by production, but handled and scheduled eventually by the Community team and PR. My day is extremely varied though and my inbox schizophrenic, so I?ve ended up doing everything from mild-CSM liaison to HR presentation advisor to talking to some of the world?s foremost scientists, fashion designers and MMA fighters.
I guess I?m more or less a PR ?trident?.
[Prong 1] The mafia lawyer side of me protects CCP from itself (can you imagine being the coxswain of a Viking longboat?)
[Prong 2] The press secretary in me makes sure we are putting our best side forward without acting the fool and deviating from the truth
[Prong 3] The town crier part of me strains his voice to make sure we?re enticing every single person into the universe as possible. It?s honestly a selfish thing. I want as many Kil2s, Xanders, Seismic Stans and DaBigRedBoats as possible in EVE because of Metcalfe?s Law. Each person we add makes my own personal gameplay exponentially more awesome and as an EVE player that?s what I want. It?s why I love DUST too. New Eden is an absolutely bizarre universe when you really think about it. As PR guy dealing with it and its players, I can assure you it is both extremely fulfilling and never dull.
What has been your proudest moment at CCP? A particular project, perhaps?
So one of my proudest moments was actually in the thick of Incarna and the Fearless leak. Internally I took up the dutiful banner in advocating what I knew was the heart and mind of the ?average player? in the conversations and debates we were having. Actually the role I played during those dark days was something I?d been playing for a months if not years before, just during that summer I felt like I needed to be a bit louder. I?ll leave it at that.
On a more project-based-level I got some pride that culminated the day I was about to board the plane to 2013 Fanfest. I?d worked very closely with Unifex, Seagull, Guard and Navigator and everyone else for months to bring EVE and its players through the previous couple years to a place where we, CCP, were in newsstands in both Businessweek and Playboy at the same time and we were approaching Fanfest at a fevered pitch with Retribution being our most successful expansion ever. More journalists than ever were speaking our New Eden language and remained genuinely interested in what lightning we had in our bottle.
While the following wasn?t a moment of pride, I think it?s important to mention.
I look back and realized that, to be frank, Vile Rat?s passing was a huge blow to me, having met him in person once and via the CSM, but really only knowing him through the EVE community and some of its players. I have personal proof that his legacy lives on because his passing helped me truly understand Fanfest and EVE and the community to which I am basically trying to sell admission as a marketer. The EVE Universe community is incredible. Nothing short of the full meaning of that word. It is full of creativity. It is full of generosity. It is full of hilarity. It is the best gaming can offer. And yes, I am aware of the ridiculous trolls and miscreants in it.
I am truly honored having met him, and I don?t say that lightly. I also don?t say it in a hushed or reverent tone. Why? Because I?ve come to realize he truly manifested EVE and its players in all its myriad facets. I?ve known and endured the tragic passing of other players ? those are no less heartbreaking ? yet there came a point in the past year that I truly knew what CCP had created was unique in any form of entertainment both in terms of ?meaning? and scope. The cyno vigil. The mass renaming of player assets. The fund for Vile?s family. New Eden, as a venue of remembrance and action, was nearly unmatchable as a digital community.
And, like I said, I came to know this through the tragic loss of Sean Smith. I was jarred by the fact that, during all the Benghazi hearings in the US, I ended up switching off my political mind and subconsciously translated all the rhetoric to such an unerring and simple thing. That distillation asked the simple question of Why? Why did this person, this ?friend?, this ?avatar? of my own personal community?why did he have to be the one? I came to accept that tragic intimacy ? the same that we all (player and dev alike) feel in a universally positive way at Fanfest ? as the way we have ended up creating something together. CCP Solaris? original design document for EVE decrees that ?death must be meaningful.? And for me, a poignant moment was realizing after years of study and interaction and gameplay and such, I had come to realize how meaningful death could really become in EVE.
Artificially widening the space between dev and player became a bit silly, even though a healthy arms-length is proper. It?s like demanding your game master in a tabletop game has to be a stranger. Good friend with a bit of authority is good. It showed me that the most important part of gaming is really relationships you make. The experience showed me that, while it?s fucking tough to lose someone you know, it is equally heartening to realize what your efforts, through work, gave to their ?family.?
Which person (people) do you report to directly? Does anybody report to you?
I happily report to the person with the best CCP name ever: ?CCP BAD COP?. He?s in charge of all corporate communication and has been a force in the EVE universe since he started about a year ago.
Other than that, in our crazy organization matrix (which I sometimes think HR just made to mess with our heads) I also sort of report to the CEO, the Executive Board and the various marketing brand leads and the Exec and Senior Producers. I work with people all around the company but am given a pretty amazing amount of autonomy. It?s great how much CCP trusts the people that work here to lead the charge.
How large is your PR team?
Internally it?s myself, CCP BAD COP (the bossman), CCP Gonzo (my DUST 514 counterpart), CCP Tyr (events megagod), and the newly appointed CCP Ruffige in the Iceland office. Ruffige has been with the company a while as the video team manager, but since he?s done such a masterful job as our de facto rep in Iceland (and has a background in PR), we grabbed him on our team to help focus on European PR.
Externally we?ve got some companies we work with around the globe to help with events and outreach and pitching. We are basically a Lord Varys minus the nice smells and powdery appearance.
What does a normal working day look like for CCP Manifest?
HAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHA. Normal. What?! The only thing consistent about my days is lots of email.
As the Senior Public Relations Specialist, how much time do you spend liaising with the media? What sorts of media requests come across your desk? Some examples if possible?
Well, it comes and goes in waves according to the season, but I'd say I spend about half my time in ?media relations? and the other half on other stuff like messaging and social media and marketing. Media Relations includes directly talking to media, preparing answers, setting people up with advice and accounts and preparing pitches for specific outlets. I get all kinds of media requests ? from the typical ?put me in touch with some high level players? to ?tell me about the hardware that runs EVE? to all sorts of economic requests (we get asked a lot about Bitcoin and Facebook Credits). There?s not really a normal media request though since EVE is?well EVE.
When there are massive battles in EVE Online, do you wait for that information to be disseminated naturally to media outlets, or is CCP proactive in getting that information out to media outlets to write about? Just curious if massive battles/losses are a press release opportunity for CCP Games.
Typically during the beginning stages we try to let the players tell the story as much as possible, so we alert specialist media to any ongoing livestreams of massive events as early as possible. Then, once the battle is over and perspective can be formed, we definitely do outreach ? typically based around devblogs and player assets and accounts. I wrote the Battle of Asakai blog for instance. Big battles are a great opportunity for EVE and we try to use them to speak as realistically as possible about EVE while still giving a sense of wonder to people who have no concept that such a thing as important internet spaceship battles can exist. I did a live broadcast interview with a Spanish Language show for instance on 6VDT. Cool, fun stuff that is typically one of the public?s first glimpses of the rim of the rabbit hole.
When the BBC or Discovery Channel decide to write articles about EVE Online, do these organizations tend to contact CCP Games for additional information? Or do these articles just tend to appear and then you're somewhat surprised (or not) that major media outlets are writing about EVE?
Well, it depends. We have had BBC folk out to Fanfest before for instance, so it?s nice if there?s a reporter at the top tier outlet that has some knowledge of EVE. Strangely though, it seems a lot of online news companies forget that you can Google company x and find a PR contact. Of course I know there?s only so much time they can devote to each story, but it?s still strange. Usually they just run with their own perspective of what has already become part of internet news.
If there?s a glaring mistake that?s fixable ? such as the fact that some places reported you can buy ISK for real world currency ? we contact their editors and have it (hopefully) fixed. However, EVE as it is, you are just going to have to eventually realize nobody in the top tier is going to get everything 100% factually accurate unless they get a thorough explanation. So on our end, it?s important to get the corrections in as soon as possible as we see them, since you don?t know which story might be the basis for a dozen others. In the case of 6VDT, The Verge was front and center and reported well, which helped.
As to being surprised? Not at all. This is really compelling stuff and fresh, unique material for outlets who are used to writing about operating system x?s patch #80918811. I mean, space battles with thousands of people fighting in real time is super sci fi and can capture even the most jaded video game journalist?s imagination.
What is your opinion on the recent trends of media to equate ISK values in EVE to real-value dollars? Are there any negative impressions you feel this gives to the game? Are there any positives to take from it?
It?s a mixed bag yes. One guy I talked to about 6VDT was kinda disappointed it wasn?t ?millions of dollars lost? and I was like? ?If that was the case I?m sure we?d have spoken well before this?. Most people though are impressed that thousands of dollars worth of ship can be lost to a mistake.
Also, I spend a lot of time explaining PLEX and how you can?t really ?convert? otherwise we?d get the Sauron-eyes of all sorts of regulatory committees on us. It?s a good jumping off point for explaining the economy and sort of the way EVE ?works? as a game.
There is however a really good side. It does help people relate to the magnitude of loss people feel in game when losing the ship. Of course it?s not really the same feeling, as us EVE players know. It?s not how we think about it. For instance I?d rather misplace a $20 bill than lose a Falcon to being stupid, although a PLEX would buy me much more than the Falcon.
When a player is hired by CCP, is there any "training" that is given to them in terms of how to now communicate with the customers/public? I'd imagine that acceptable communication as an employee is much different than what is normal player-to-player communication, and that maybe some direction/guidelines are given to new employees coming from the player-sphere. Do you tend to monitor new employee communication (via Twitter, the forums, etc.) more closely after a hire, to supply guidance/corrections until they're more familiar/used to new protocols and styles of communication?
It really depends on the person and how often they will be doing interviews or how public-facing they are expected to be. Recently we went through some media training with an outside company with people who we know would be doing a lot of interviews. Not everyone though needs that though, so typically it?s just employees reading the base guidelines and asking questions if they want to post something for the first time and are unsure. After a little poking and prodding we usually get people to the right place. Some people, like CCP Fozzie and CCP Rise, jump right in the deep end and do quite well. Others it takes a bit of back and forth work ? which is just natural with any personal skill that people have in different degrees. Devblogs is an area where people typically get their feet wet and they have lots of help from community/PR in terms of both creating the devblog and then following up in the thread afterwards.
There are some golden rule thumbs for social media and forum usage that come from PR and the Community team. Those mostly equate to:
- don?t reveal anything we have plans to reveal a bit later to greater effect
- you shouldn't be commenting on something you aren't working on directly (because you might not have the most up to date info and that helps nobody)
- don?t talk bad about other game companies or their products (there is enough love for everyone!)
- Wil Wheaton?s Law of ?Don?t Be A Dick?
So you are involved with the new trend of expansion themes? I ask, since you mentioned being involved with a meeting on how to approach the winter expansion. What were some of the expansion names for the Odyssey expansion that were not chosen?
As a nomenphilerist, I really like to get involved in naming things, I think it comes from my love of world creation in tabletop games and characters in other writing that I?ve done. Or maybe I like that stuff because I like naming things? For Odyssey specifically, I don?t think we had many other serious contenders since Odyssey hit on the main themes of exploration and epicness and mythology.
Anyways?In the past, the company used to look at what features we wanted to deliver and then create a name suited on that. Tyrannis, Dominion and Apocrypha are all examples of that. Even Crucible was worded with that in mind, although it had an even more meta name of where we were as a company. Now we?re much more focused on themes and features as a cohesive whole, as outlined by CCP Seagull at Fanfest. We want to make sure we?re delivering something compelling and SciFi for the different types of EVE players. So with Retribution and Odyssey you?ll see that the theme is stronger and more fitting, which might be why they were two of our top three most successful expansions ever ? Retribution unseated Apocrypha BTWJ. The upcoming expansions work more in that manner, so the themes are being developed more alongside the vision instead of retrofitted so to speak. I?ve got naming suggestions into brand for the next 5 or so expansions. I think they are great. EVE Online: Pewpew, EVE Online: Pewpew II, EVE Online: EXCELsior, EVE Online: Attack Fighter Squadron Beta Four Billion Mega Mecha Laser Punch and EVE Online: TOTALHELLDEATH. Hopefully players like them too. I think after that I might no longer be invited to the meetings about themes held between marketing and development.
When CCP creates new trailers for expansions, features, etc. are you involved in the initial process of coming up with the "script" for said trailers? Are you involved in that initial process in terms of putting forth the messaging you'd like to get across.
I pitched an idea for the Odyssey script that mirrored Odysseus? journey as the story of a pilot leaving his home system for adventure, fame and fortune and returning home to find it taken over. Due to timing and bandwidth constraints, it couldn?t be made into a sprawling 25 minute magnum opus full of high concepts and space poetry. Or a more appropriate shorter 1-2 minute one. Just too many shots to set up?the burden of a maddened mind imagining a Legion tiptoing past the Scylla and Charybdis of Avatar and Leviathan. That was untypical though?usually for trailers I?m consulted as one of the EVE savviest of the marketing team.
For overall messaging and stuff like expansion names, I?m very involved. Just the other day we had another meeting about how we want to approach the winter expansion ? an almost neverending conversation I actually love to have. I work pretty closely with CCP Loktofeit (more on Loktofeit shortly) on stuff like the feature page and marketing copy and we help check eachother?s work. He?s a welcome breath of fresh eyes on press releases and announcements I put out.
Who is CCP Loktofeit? (This might not be a separate question unto itself, but rather added to the answer where you mention Loktofeit.)
CCP Loktofeit is CCP?s copywriter. He handles nearly all strictly marketing copy (newsletters, emails, banners, etc) for both EVE and DUST 514. To say he?s just that diminishes both his character and his epic persona. The man is nothing short of an MMOficionado. Ever heard of a browser MMO that came out for a couple months to the US in 2004 after a year or so in eastern Ukraine? Me neither, but he has like 7 alts in it and still gets emails from them. He?s also done cool side projects like www.ihavereturned.com. There are so many stories I could tell of him that would polevault him right atop everyone?s ?most interesting man in the world? list, but that would betray his humility. He?s one of the good ones--a keeper. He cares about gaming and has this infectious enthusiasm for it in all its forms more than almost anyone I know. I?ll leave the rest of him as a mystery though, since, once you spend any significant amount of time with him, you?ll understand my description here. His only downside is he is somewhat psychologically against exulting in Star Wars, even after years of us hazing him I think he?s maybe still only seen A New Hope. A horrible black mark on what is otherwise an impeccable and fascinating character.
Actually this came up pretty directly out of a piece that was done in Businessweek (print and online) where we had one of their reporters come over to Iceland and do an in depth article about EVE, CCP, DUST514, Iceland and the CSM. The article was great and the reporter, Ashlee Vance, was super sharp. He jumped right into the universe head first and weathered several days of CSM sessions. I?d been helping to cultivate the story for several months beforehand, as it arose peripherally from Sean Smith, although Ashlee was interested in the universe as a whole and thought it told a very compelling story. So, sometime after it ran, Businessweek?s advertising arm apparently liked the story and graphics enough to ask our permission to use it in an advertising campaign along with others. We, being shrewd space businessmen, of course accepted.
How fun has it been doing PR for EVE Valkyrie? How busy have you been? What has been the highlight of the Valkyrie PR trail thus far?
Most of the PR for Valkyrie has been done as a group effort, with CCP BAD COP leading the way. I will say though that its been an absolute joy, and heartening to have such a good experience to rival those I?ve had with EVE and DUST. I?d heard early internal rumors of it before most of the company and CCP BAD COP and CCP Pokethulhu both regaled us with early playtests saying essentially what the image to the left is showing us. I finally got my grubby paws on it before Fanfest. My first playthrough I honestly didn?t QUITE realize how amazing it was because I got owned by the guys who made it. Then the second one I nabbed three kills in a row and actually started to use the VR instead of just flying and aiming with my hands.
Fanfest was great to be able to introduce it to the world and all the assembled press (over 80) from around the world. EVE had bittervets ? or so I hear ? but I?ve got to say some games journalists are probably moarbittervets. To see them universally drooling over Valkyrie?well that was awesome. We decided pretty quickly to bring it to E3 and won several prestigious awards from IGN and more. Right now it?s a bit similar to doing PR for World of Darkness?you know what?s amazing but it?s just not quite the time to go full crazy in terms of promoting it.
As a side note, I feel a particular affinity for Valkyrie because I was the one that pitched that name internally. EVE always has dramatic, pseudo-mythological or religious names to the expansions and products. CCP is essentially a bunch of crazy Vikings that all jumped in a longboat together. The game is about epic aerial combat. What has all of those in common? Valkyries. My pitch was a lot more eloquent than that and included dramatic descriptions of the feeling of playing the game, references to supernatural immortal guardians and such, but you get the drift.
What role do you play in the development and planning of each Fanfest? When does that planning start for you?
Fanfest is an amazing indescribable thing. Months out, every damn year, we all wonder ? how in the world do we get it done?! There?s just so much to do honestly. But slowly and with a lot of wrangling (mainly on the part of CCP Tyr), it begins to take shape. Then the last minute ?magic? starts inevitably coming out of the woodwork like the Chessboxing event.
I think players would be surprised to know exactly how much each employee puts into Fanfest, and how, while Marketing is a big part of helping it come to be and of course ?paying? for it, developers themselves are mostly the ones driving content. It seems like people have their passion projects that somewhat overlap with things we do at Fanfest every year, and that collectively we all come to a consensus as to what would be ?fun? and then we just do it. There?s some oversight, but really it?s a cool opportunity for devs to bring what they want to the table.
Specifically, I do help to look over some of the keynotes and session presentations, brainstorm session ideas and just sort of follow along with the birthing process. Of course every year I get involved with the social media side of things, the actual media side of things (which takes up a lot of time when there are 80 journalists, a press tour and press only sessions), talking points, editing, messaging and promotion etc. I also get the joy of the pre-Fanfest employee presentation that basically goes over what to expect and what not to do. It?s basically ?Be a space bro!?
This past year I helped get the ?Make EVE Real? speakers to Fanfest ? I think a great success people were pleasantly surprised by. And, occasionally, I get to deal with Alliance Panels :/. I really enjoy Fanfest and all its challenges and it?s the high point of the year for me professionally as the interaction between players and players/devs is just awesome. The #tweetfleet meetup is one of my favorites, although I?m always so damn busy I can?t hang out with players really until the final night.
Planning for the next year starts when Fanfest ends, but accelerates around 6 months out and then maybe 3 or so months it?s an increasingly suicidal pace.
Since you're originally from White Wolf, does CCP Games now own all the properties outright? They're all free to develop down-the-road if CCP has any interest? Whereas I never played any of the Vampire or Werewolf games of White Wolf (that genre is not my thing), I did quite enjoy their Exalted line of products. If the World of Darkness MMO turns into a success, and CCP wants to try their hand at mythic fantasy, then keep whispering Exalted into their ears for me when that day comes.
Yep, CCP owns the full suite of World of Darkness related properties, including Exalted. On the tabletop and LARPing side we license them out to Onyx Path Publishing, which is comprised of a ton of veteran White Wolfers who are some of the most creative gaming minds that I know. They?ve been publishing stuff on DriveThruRPG.com over the past couple years, including some great 20th anniversary products. I agree Exalted would make a pretty awesome game, even if just for the art style and the names of some of the powers. The couple lines we did sell to Onyx Path are Scion and Trinity. So fans of those should know they are in good hands.
I assume you are (or were) a roleplayer, having come from White Wolf Publishing. Do (or did) you have a favourite line? World of Darkness? Exalted? Scion? Perhaps something more obscure? Are you still roleplaying? What games (or systems) are favourites currently?
World of Darkness is easily my favorite. Underneath that banner, I?m actually a huge NewWoD fan since it?s more focused on being a toolset and a bit less of a meta-story that players are tossed into. My favorite game line is Hunter: the Vigil as I think it provides just the right mix of hopelessness/defiance that creates a really compelling dramatic experience for the players as flawed humans struggling against the unknown. Also it seems to naturally prevent anyone around the table feeling like they need to rules-lawyer their character to the top of the pile and stops the notion of power-creep as a solution to making you a ?successful? player. Sort of an all-in-it-together-or-we-die thing. I?m also a big fan of Promethean: the Created, which is one of the less popular lines. I guess when it comes down to it, it?s the story of personal humanity that intrigues me. How do players respond to various levers and knobs that I as a storyteller control? Will they sacrifice their relationships to stop the monster? Have they become the monster they hunt? You know, some real Breaking Bad and The Wire type stuff.
Other than CCP properties, I?m a HUGE fan of a couple more obscure games. Hollow Earth Expedition is a pulp adventure game full of punching Nazis in the face and fending off pterodactyls in biplanes. It?s all the fun of Indiana Jones wrapped up into a nice little package. Plus, Exile Game Studio, its creators, is full of great people I?ve had the pleasure of coming to know a bit better over the years after meeting at GenCon. They just love playing around in what is essentially a fun, over-the-top genre.
I also encourage people to bring Prime Time Adventures to their gaming table. It?s about creating your own television series and then acting it out in a roleplaying style. Mildly light on rules and very participatory, it?s probably one of the most fun I?ve had gaming. Our group was choosing between a sci fi medical drama and a Romeo and Juliet tale set in Providence, RI. I voted for the former, but ended up having a ton of fun playing a tragic hitman who just couldn?t stomach the fact that the daughter of his ?employer? fell in love with some fucktard Irish cop?s son. I?m Scots-Irish so I can assure you that was an in-character sentence. I died in a hail of gunfire, just like I should. It was awesome.
And of course, D&D. Even if 4th Edition is a bit too MMO/Miniatures based for me, I still love killing me some owl bear.
Did you play EVE Online before joining CCP? If so, can you give any details on who you were, where you played, what corps and alliances you played with?
While White Wolf was dating lots of MMO publishers and before we had decided on the DUHOBVIOUS choice of CCP, I was playing a lot of games, most notably City of Heroes (RIP). Then, once the Viking fellas came knocking on our door, I got a trial and jumped right in. After the merger, one of the White Wolf founders enlisted some of us to lead an EVE corp in order to entice tabletop players and LARPchildes into the universe we knew they would love. I was appointed ?mining director? because, this one single time, I had mentioned that I regarded mining as a bringer of a Zen-like state of calm. I came to grow personally and began to love Luminous Kernite and its strange and rocky cousins. Eventually I broke free of that peaceful playstyle around Empyrean Age and that first character went under ?Witness Protection?. Who knows, you could have him in your Alliance?.
Do you play EVE Online currently? If so, how does you play now differ than how you played pre-CCP (if you did play pre-CCP.) What type of gameplay do you currently engage in? Highsec stuff? Lowsec stuff? Nullsec? W-space? How often do you find the time to play?
Yes, I most certainly do good sir ? with five characters skilltraining all day errday. In the past couple years I?ve had a character in three out of the four factional warfare efforts (so sorry Caldari!), done some nullsec small fleet and scouting work, moved dozens of freighters full of industrial stuffs, RvB?d for a bit, been a lvl 4 solo mission runner, mined the crap outta some roids with multiple characters and an Orca pilot (Mining Foreman Mindlink), all those dev fleets and even tried my hand at socially engineering a high sec carebear miner corp into a PvP corp via secretly getting people to wardec us (hint: it worked and now they are battle-hardened). I?ve poked around in Wormholes and a bit with Incursions. Wormholes remain at the top of my ?bucket list? because of the stories I?ve heard from Suddenly Ninjas guys, Nyphur of Massively.com and Two step. I am convinced WH life is the future?s future. If I ever leave CCP I am headed straight to high level nullsec politics and metagamery and might even consider a run at the CSM?
Why the name Manifest?
It?s long been one of my favorite words. It hearkens back to the idea of ?manifest destiny?, which applies nigh-perfectly to the EVE experience ? adventure, danger, opportunity. It also serves to remind me that I?m the guy who must distill the spirit of EVE and all its players in my daily work, whether written or in a tweet or on a press tour.
Source: Getting To Know CCP Manifest: An Interview